THE Federal Executive Council (FEC), on Monday, approved the adoption of the Orosanye Report, aimed at the reduction of cost of governance, for implementation.
Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, announced the adoption while briefing State House Correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, presided over by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, at the Council Chambers, Presidential Villa, Abuja.
On April 16, 2012, Steve Orosanye, former Head of Service and Chairman of the Presidential Committee on the Rationalisation and Restructuring of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies, submitted the 800-page report submitted to President Goodluck Jonathan.
The Committee was inaugurated on August 18, 2011.
According to Orosanye then: “There are 541 government parastatals, commissions and agencies (statutory and non-statutory) in the country. Going by the recommendations of the Committee, the figure of statutory agencies is being proposed for reduction to 161 from the current figure of 263.
“The Committee believes that if the cost of governance must be brought down, then both the legislature and judiciary must make spirited efforts at reducing their running costs as well as restructuring and rationalising the agencies under them since the three arms make up the government.’’
The Committee proposed the removal of all professional bodies/Councils from the national budget in order to reduce the high cost of governance.
It also recommended that the budgetary system should be linked to deliverables and output, and urged the government to implement or vacate decisions taken on past reports.
The Minister of Information and National Orientation explained that with the adoption of the Orosanye report, it means that some agencies, commissions and departments of government have been scrapped, some merged, some subsumed under some others and others moved under new ministries where they are supposed to perform better.
“In a very bold move today, this administration, under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, consistent again with his courage to take very far-reaching decisions in the interest of Nigerians, has taken a decision to implement the so called Orosanye Report.
“Now, what that means is that a number of agencies, commissions, and some departments have actually been scrapped, some have been merged, while others have been subsumed. Others, of course, have also been moved from some ministries to others where government feels they will operate better.
“Like I said, this is a very far-reaching decision. It is aimed, one, to fine-tune or to restructure government operations as a whole. Secondly, it’s in line also with decision of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to reduce the cost of governance”, he said.
He, however, explained that the adoption of the report did not mean people working in the affected agencies and departments will lose their jobs.